Czech Republic and Poland, (Day 9). Friday 12th July 2019.
I had two weeks booked for roaming around the Czech Republic and Poland, an NFP Grumpy Rail tour on the first Sunday out and then up to Poland for a 5-day Interrail.
After a great night’s sleep in the hostel, I was round at Gdynia Glowna ready for the first train out to Hel. I had an ICCC SM 42 on the way out there and a Prewozy Regionalne 50 on the way back, so super shunter power, Goggles and Units were also working the line, always an amazing selection of motive power in the summer months.
I returned to Gdynia Glowna and took a local train out to Gdynia Grabowek and walked around to the locomotive depot and was very kindly taken around the depot, such lovely people the Polish. I returned to Gdynia Grabowek caught a train back to Gdynia Glowna and then a stopper east to Malbork for a change to Elblag as I wanted to catch a train to the Russian border at Kaliningrad as far as Braniewo, there are two lines from Elblag, one goes along the coast, but only two trains a day were advertised and it was suggested that I catch a bus, which would have defeated the object of getting the line in, so instead I carried on to Olsztyn.
I walked around the depot, or stabling point as it is now, the old roundhouse has been demolished since my last visit, but still has a few locos on site, so worth the visit. I then found a direct train to Lodz via Warsaw, so I opted for another night without a bed. Arriving at Lodz Fabryczna just before midnight.
I believe Lodz was quite a run down city in the early 2000`s, what they seem to have done here is flattened everything and started again, only in a designer fashion, the station is essentially underground, with varying levels above, a terminus station at present, but a tunnel under the city is apparently being built to continue the line beyond the present buffers. I had 4 hours to kill there, so I had a wonder around the city, it was a souless place, very antiseptic looking and quite boring really, I`m not sure if it improves any in the daylight, but wasn’t staying to find out, I had an early train back to Warsaw. I was however on the benches for another few hours.
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